Midtown Madness 2

Review - as huge fans of the original Midtown titles, we approached this one with all the journalistic impartiality of a group of schoolboys being offered free chips, and just look where it's gotten us..

City of Angels

Midtown Madness was truly the epitome of class within the driving
genre for last year. Far more than the transient glare I thought it
was when I first played it, it took some weeks before I removed the
CD from the drive tray and played something else.
Yet for some reason I find myself looking upon its sequel
disparagingly. After all, the concept of racing around a city with
so-called "absolute freedom" is now nothing to get particularly
excited about. Far from providing denouement, Midtown 2 is
dispassionate on the whole, but momentarily fulfilling.
Is it a worthy sequel to Midtown Madness? And moreover, is it
worthy of you £30? On balance I'd say yes, you should buy this
game. After so many serious driving titles in the offing and on our
plates already this year, a bit of town-hopping furore is precisely
what's needed!
Unfortunately Midtown 2 isn't going to light your fire quite like
its predecessor did. In terms of sheer excitement and intensity it
will; every bump and turn is enough to get your juices flowing, but
sadly there was never going to be anything that could be done to
equal the impact of Midtown, so instead of reinventing the wheel,
Microsoft and Angel Studios have chosen to reinvigorate it, with
two new locations and a whole host of new challenges. But
thankfully, by retaining its feel and composure, this sequel does
enough to keep even the most diehard fan happy.

Ephemeral

This time around you've got two gigantic cities instead of just the
one. Both San Francisco and London are included, complete with all
the familiar landmarks. Of course the gameplay is recognizable to
anyone who has ever played Midtown (and if you haven't.. well you
do own a PC, right?), but in the unlikely instance that you're a
newcomer, the Cruise Mode is there for your kind and indeed
old-hands alike who feel the need to brush up on the game's
Hollywood physics.
As you start taking on the Checkpoint, Circuit and Blitz races,
and a new addition to the series, Crash Course challenges, there's
a continual progression and of course appropriate rewards for your
efforts, with new vehicles and challenges. Some of the cars that
are locked at the beginning are incredible fun and well worth
aspiring to reveal.
The cars at your disposal from the off can be grouped by
performance. Some are sluggish but indestructible whilst others are
nippy medium runners. There are a few that move swiftly but
practically fall apart when so much as the wing mirror is clipped,
and later on you come across a few that are good all rounders.
Sadly though, because most all you need to win at Midtown is a bit
of daredevil attitude and some caution, the middle class cars are
the only option, leaving the others in relative obscurity.
The aforementioned Crash Courses are new to the game. They are
tough, feverish challenges which while short-lived stack up and
provide infuriatingly addictive gameplay. The winding back streets
of London and the number of parked cars within them makes for some
intense action at high speeds, and the never-say-die cops with
their high performance vehicles in San Francisco tearing around
after you do likewise.

Exacting

The engine enhancements consist of a longer view into the distance
and nicer textures on the other vehicles, but to use an old adage,
if it ain't broke.. don't fix it! Sadly the multiplayer problems
are also still inherent, with lag occurring even over a local area
network, so playing on the Internet is still a joke. As has been
shown in the past by games like GTA, enormous real-time worlds like
this can be hard to sustain without enormous amounts of data
passing between the computers involved, but there has to be a way
of making this work somehow.
Often computer cars and player cars appear in the wrong place, and
there are other little inconsistencies between where things seem to
be on one machine and where they are on another. Unfortunately
there's little to be done about this, and I dare say it will make
multiplayer intolerable for people used to a steady, smooth gaming
experience.
The engine isn't the only area that could use some work; the audio
accompaniment is downright unpleasant at times as well. The sound
effects are as they were before, but unlike our crazy Chicago
commentator from the original, Midtown 2's clichéd group of
wannabes are ambiguous to say the least. Stateside you get a hippy
and a gangster and Londoners can look forward to a Scot and a
thug.. there's a lot more in-game commentary than before, but I
would have thought local radio personalities would have made better
choices. What we have are just loose associations.

Insecure

Fundamentally, one of Midtown Madness 2's biggest faults is that it
lacks a coherent structure. There's nothing to tie it all together.
You race therefore you are? Had we seen a properly structured
single player game instead of unrelated tasks held together under
the banner of "separate" modes, it might have been easier to
recommend this to owners of the original.
The London Cabbie Academy might have been a good idea (if a rather
despairing one), but it's not even put to any real use. On the
whole you play Midtown Madness 2 and you always have something new
and varied to do, but eventually you grow tired of the pick-a-door
tasks and lose interest. Don't get me wrong; it's an enjoyable,
exciting and occasionally emotional piece of software (evidence: my
cracked keyboard), but it could have done with something to meld it
all together into a whole.
That said, there's nothing quite as entertaining as smashing
headlong into police car and watching it roll over and over before
ploughing into something else. The challenge, variety and intensity
is there, and that's what most people will remember.

Conclusion

It looks good, feels good, plays good and has enough to keep you
occupied for a good long while. Midtown Madness 2 is one of those
games that needs to be played. It's not without its gripes - it
locked up on me several times during our brief relationship, and
I'm not a big fan of its commentary, but once it has you in its
grip it won't let you go until you've utterly exhausted it, and
vice versa, and that should be enough for anyone.

Eye Candy

9
/
10

Read the Eurogamer.net reviews policyMidtown Madness 2Tom BramwellReview - as huge fans of the original Midtown titles, we approached this one with all the journalistic impartiality of a group of schoolboys being offered free chips, and just look where it's gotten us..2000-10-05T14:26:00+01:00910